entered, he and his company, and seating themselves in the place of honour, amused themselves by looking at the hand-maids and Mamelukes and watching how they were bought and sold, till the vending came to an end, when some of the folk went away and some remained seated. Then cried the slave-dealer, “Let none sit with us except whoso purchaseth by the thousand dinars and upwards.” Accordingly those present withdrew and there remained none but Al-Rashid and his suite; whereupon the slave-dealer called the damsel, after he had caused set her a chair of Fawwák,[140] lined with Grecian brocade, and she was like the sun shining high in the shimmering sky. When she entered, she saluted and sitting down, took the lute and smote upon it, after she had touched its strings and tuned it, so that all present were amazed. Then she sang thereto these couplets: Breeze o’ Morn, an thou breathe o’er the loved one’s land, ✿ Deliver my greeting to all the dear band! And declare to them still I am pledged to their love ✿ And my longing excels all that lover unmanned: O ye who have blighted my heart, ears and eyes, ✿ My passion and ecstasy grow out of hand; And torn is my sprite every night with desire, ✿ And nothing of sleep can my eyelids command. Ishak exclaimed, “Brava, O damsel! By Allah, this is a fair hour!” Whereupon she sprang up and kissed his hand, saying, “O my lord, in very sooth the hands stand still before thy presence and the tongues at thy sight, and the loquent when confronting thee wax dumb; but thou art the looser of the veil.”[141] Then she clung to him and cried, “Stand;” so he stood and said to her, “Who art thou and what is thy need?” She raised a corner of the veil, and behold she was a damsel as she were the full moon rising or the leven glancing, with two side-locks of hair which fell down to her anklets. She kissed his hand and said to him, “O my lord, know that I have been in these quarters some five months, during which I have withheld myself from sale till thou shouldst be present and see me; and yonder slave-dealer also made thy coming a pretext for not vending me, and forbade me for all I sought of him night and day that he should cause thee come hither and vouchsafe me thy company and gar me and thee forgather.” Quoth Ishak, “Tell me what thou wouldst have;” and quoth she, “I beseech thee, by Allah Almighty, that thou buy me, so I may be with thee by way of service.” He asked, “Is that thy desire?” and she answered “Yes.” So Ishak returned to the slave-dealer and said to him, “Ho thou, Shaykh Sa’id!” Said the old man, “At thy service, O my lord,” and Ishak continued, “In the corridor is a chamber and therein wones a damsel pale and wan. What is her price in dirhams and how much dost thou ask for her?” Quoth the slave-dealer, “She whom thou mentionest, O my lord, is called Tohfat al-Humaká.”[142] Ishak asked, “What is the meaning of Al-Humaka?” and the old man